At the dawn of the 21st Century, with the many revolutions of technology and the onset of global communication, the future looked brighter than ever. By 2047, a working prototype of a new propulsion system, the Wilkens Sublight Drive, had been tested, and approved by the UEG. Eager to sieze more territory for it’s empire, the North American Coalition began to develop massive, city-sized ships to colonize planets. At first it was slow work, with the technology only allowing colonization of Earth-like planets. The first of these were the Pisces Colony Cluster, consisting of Aíne, Callirus, and Medna in 2101. Humanity continued to expand, spreading throughout the galaxy, and, in certain places, even beyond. Meanwhile, dissent began to arise in the colonies, specifically Aíne. A neo-fascist radical group, known only as “Unity”, began to stir up a rebellion. “What does Earth do for us?” they cried, more and more colonists joining the Unity cause. Soon, the entire Pisces Cluster had fallen under Unity control, with a rebel fleet of ships patrolling it’s “sovereign” space. In 2113, as a response to the now very real Rebel threat, the UEG oversees the creation of the Bureau of Colonial Affairs, a broad administration that would act as both the planner and law enforcement for Earth and her colonies. By 2125, the BCA, as it is commonly known, launched its first ship, the BCA Phoenix. The Phoenix’s mission was to scout the edges of Unity controlled space, and for the most part it was successful. While on it’s return journey, the ship was lost to unexplained causes. (citation needed)

Soon after, the BCA began to finally realize that the Pisces Cluster was a lost cause. Too many had gathered there, the odds too overwhelming. On July 15th, 2130, UEG representatives approved the use of a DERM “Bulldozer” detonation in the Pisces system, which, by their approximations, would eradicate most, if not all life in the system. The plan worked, and the Pisces Cluster was left barren and irradiated, with no biological signatures, aside from the occasional lichen. For all their planning and preperation, they could not have planned for the uproar from the people of the UEG. Schisms arose between countries, old hatreds boiling through, and the Unified Earth’s government collapsed into turmoil. Sol, for some time, went dark as entire planets were raized, factions fighting for control over the former superpower’s assets. Finally, after the fledgling BCA recalled its fleets and began to quell some of the dissent, Terra fell into a somewhat peaceful state. Lines began to be drawn up, alliances formed. Soon, new superpowers rose to rival the ones of old, and a new age was ushered forth. Unfortunately, most records from before the fall were lost to scholars, being locked away in the safest of locations for supposed “protection.”

The Bureau of Colonial Affairs returned to its business, founding colonies in distant star systems, cataloguing life on unexplored planets. In 2179, The BCA Humphrey dropped out of subspace due to a Wilkens drive malfunction, to find something strange. A signal beacon, in orbit around a lifeless world. Bringing the beacon aboard, they discovered something shocking. The beacon was alien in origin, its estimated path having taken it from the “dead” system of Yal Tu’uk. The captain of the Humphrey decided to discover the beacon’s origins, and the ship transmitted it’s last message on May 4th, 2179. A report was filed, and locked away in the BCA’s repositories.

By the year 2200, the BCA was the dominant political and military force in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, and, by the use of Jumpgates, sporadic locations in the nearby Andromeda Galaxy. The events in Sol, particularly the Ceres Incident and the Veridian Wormhole Anomaly, were of great tumult and worry. But no item was more newsworthy than a little-known race of alien life, referred to as the “Kal’Haruum.”

The Kal-Haruum were an insectoid, heirarchal species hailing from the Kaal Bhu sector of unexplored space, or “Khendi” as they referred to it. First contact was achieved by the BCA Humphrey in 2179, along with a vidlog of the encounter. No further contact was achieved until the fall of 2190, when the freighter Lost Horizons made a subspace trajectory error, dropping out near a Kal-Haruum colony world known as “Maln”, or designated as ESP-4569-B in the BCA Planetary Catalogue. The Kal’Haruum, extremely isolated and xenophobic, reacted with unexpected force, and boarded the ship. All crew were lost, with the exception of a single man, the legendary Tiberius DeVrie. He managed to land his escape pod on the planet’s moon, and stayed out of contact until the rescue ship, the BCA Dove’s Feather, arrived in system. He then assisted by giving the ship’s captain the Kal-Haruum fighter positions.

Once the Kaal Bhu incident became public, Humanity began to arm themselves. Preparing, they called it. On August 17th, 2200, the Kal’Haruum Empire declared war on Humanity, citing “Revenge” as their reason. The colony world of Agate was one of the many fringe worlds to fall to the Kal’Haruum onslaught, buried underneath the choking rubble and bodies of it’s inhabitants. The Kal’Haruum were decisive in their attacks, appearing without warning and raizing a colony to it’s pristine, uninhabited state using their massive ship-mounted ion cannons. The BCA was quick to act, constructing thousands of vessels and conscripting men to man them. One by one, the Kal’Haruum were pushed back from Human colonies, the wreckage of their ships still littering space as glittering epitaphs, doomed to drift for eternity. In August of 2252, just after the BCA’s Liberation of the colony world of Agate, they began to regroup at Gungnir Station, in the Corsailles system, beyond the edge of Human space and in the so-called “Neutral Zone” between the KAl’Haruum and Humans. Soon after, the fleet departed, soon arriving at the center of Kal’Haruum space, the world of Hak’Shalaam. The planet, from which the system recieves its name, swiftly fell under assault, with the BCA fleet deploying prototype ion weaponry, repelling the last ditch Kal’Haruum effort at protection. With help of a special forces insertion team, the Kal’Haruum leadership and the economical and cultural center of their empire were destroyed, dooming the empire to fall into nothingness.

With the aid of the BCA, the failing empire was absorbed into human space, and the Kal’Haruum-Human alliance began. Meanwhile, the Earth was in chaos. The East Asian Federation, a country long kept to its own business, began to conquer countries surrounding its borders. By 2243, most of the Asian continent was under it’s control, including the former Persia. The occupied European Federation began to rebel, starting small, keeping in the shadows. Soon, it had become a full out rebellion, aided by the EF’s cloak and dagger treaty and alliance with the Commonwealth of South Africa, a remnant of the former British Empire. In 2259, the European Federation, supported by CSA mechanized units, began to push into the Egyptian wastelands and Palestine, meeting only small resistance. Surprisingly, they began to recieve help from local clans, mainly former Persian soldiers. Steadily they grew, pushing their way deeper into Asia. Finally, they crossed the Caspian, choked by centuries of abuse and pollution. In what was formerly Turkmenistan, they first encountered the first vestiges of East Asian military might. After dealing with the threat, they began to encounter problems. First, the radioactive dust of the desert was unbreathable, for fear of mutation or fatal complications. Second, the ferocity of the many wars that had plagued the region had literally torn the Earth asunder in places, leaving yawning chasms that dropped thousands of feet into the desert. Despite this, they continued to push, eventually reaching victory in the Chinese Administrative District of the EAF, until they were pushed back by orbital bombardment from EAF battleships. They continued to retreat, hounded through the mountainous terrain as far as the Uralic wastes. There, mutant raids and disease continued to claim lives, and mechanical problems forced the battle weary soldiers to leave vehicles behind to be consumed by the horrible sands. Only around a thousand troops and vehicles returned to Brussels, starved and broken.

Meanwhile, tensions continued to build between the Kal’Haruum refugees and humans, coming to a head on March 1st, 2261. On board Europa Orbital Facility, a shootout broke out between local radicals and a group of Kal’Haruum, killing 4 and injuring dozens. The station was locked down, and the instigators jailed. Still, hate arose between the races, eventually resulting in two large scale battles within the Oort Cloud of the Proxima Centauri system. Battered and leaking atmosphere, the BCA Alexandria under Commander Zachary Davis managed to limp back to Terra, the sole survivor of the skirmish. Davis, a veteran of the Kal’Haruum-Human conflict, was appointed by Vice Admiral James Nguyen, commander of BCA fleets in the Sol System, to quell rebellion on Jupiter. Through assistance from CSA ships and intelligence, Davis completed his mission, only to find that the rebellion had already set in motion a plan to exterminate the refugees in and around Jupiter, using a nerve agent known as “Raid” (Humans referred to Kal’Haruum as “bugs”, see reference 22-b). The plan was foiled, and the conspirators killed. Centuries of war and turmoil had left the Earth bitter and scarred, and it’s colonies upset and ready to sever all ties.